TASB speaks on behalf of about 7,000 school board members when it shares its Advocacy Agenda with legislators and state leaders. But does that agenda really represent trustees and their communities? The answer to that question rests in your participation in the process.
At TASB, school board members like you define the Association’s positions on the issues facing public schools. Through TASB, school board members speak with one voice to guide the Legislature in shaping a strong public education system in Texas.
We structured TASB’s advocacy agenda process to maximize opportunities for your voice to be heard. The process is designed to create an agenda and set of priorities that reflects the consensus of school board members across the state.
Texas school board members participate in creating the TASB agenda in these four ways:
The TASB Grassroots Hot Topics survey
The first step in the advocacy process is to gather input from trustees through an online Grassroots Hot Topics survey. This survey helps identify the local priorities most important to trustees, their district, and their community. It’s sent out at the end of each odd-numbered year.
Responses to the survey form the basis for discussion during the second step in the process: face-to-face meetings with school board members in every region of the state.
TASB’s Grassroots Meetings are a place to make your voice heard
TASB’s Grassroots Meetings are an opportunity for every elected school board member and superintendent in a region to participate in a discussion about the issues public education faces in Texas.
TASB hosts these meetings in even-numbered years, typically during:
TASB holds meetings in each of the 20 education service center regions. The meetings cover local priorities as well as other topics important to the statewide education system.
The meeting concludes with the creation of a regional list of priorities that will advance to the next step in the process—the TASB Legislative Advisory Council (LAC). Attendees also elect representatives from their peers at the meeting to take the regional priorities to the Council.
This cannot be overstated: Attendance and participation in your regional Grassroots Meeting is critical to developing a robust Advocacy Agenda and assuring legislators that strong support exists for each advocacy priority and resolution.
Get More Info on Grassroots Meetings
TASB’s Legislative Advisory Council (LAC) and Legislative Committee
The LAC members elected from each Grassroots Meeting gather in late spring to refine a set of statewide Advocacy Priorities. As the name suggests, the Advocacy Priorities are statements about the most important issues facing Texas school districts.
The LAC also elects four of its members to serve as representatives to the TASB Legislative Committee.
The draft priorities advance to the TASB Board for final revisions and recommendations before being presented for consideration and adoption by the TASB Delegate Assembly in September.
This rigorous system is supplemented by an advocacy resolutions process that also lets individual school boards call for specific legislative changes. TASB staff review these resolutions and send them to the TASB Board’s Resolutions Committee for consideration.
Learn More about LAC
TASB Delegate Assembly: The last chance to make your board’s voice heard
The final step in the process is presentation, consideration, and adoption by the TASB Delegate Assembly at the TASA | TASB Convention in September.
Every school board has a spot at Delegate Assembly. Your board should appoint one delegate and one alternate to serve as representatives at this important meeting.
When the process is complete, you’ll have an up-to-date and comprehensive Advocacy Agenda of priorities and resolutions that will guide TASB as we work with the Legislature and state leaders.
Get Details on Delegate Assembly
Participation in the TASB advocacy process is vitally important
If attendance is strong and thousands of school board members participate in all stages of developing the agenda, it strongly reflects the beliefs and opinions of most school board members of Texas—priorities around which the greatest consensus has formed.
If you have questions about which meeting to attend or questions about the process, contact TASB Governmental Relations Division Director Dax González at 800.580.4885 or dax.gonzalez@tasb.org.